Current consumption reduction with low power amplifier

ABSTRACT

A transceiver circuit and a method in a wireless communication network are provided, where a signal power level for a signal received at the transceiver circuit is measured and compared to a predefined threshold power level. At least two groups of power amplifiers may be used, where one group is optimized for high efficiency above the predefined threshold power level, and one group is optimized for high efficiency below the predefined threshold power level. The amplifiers may be used to amplify the received signal depending on the signal power level in relation to the predefined power threshold level. The signal may then be filtered by duplex filters and forwarded to a diversity antenna or a main antenna where it is transmitted over an air interface.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/565,925 entitled Current Consumption Reduction with Low Power Amplifier filed Dec. 1, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to current consumption reduction in wireless communication networks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The development of 3G wireless communication networks by standards, such as HSPDA (High Speed Packet Data Access), EUL (Enhanced Uplink) will allow for higher data rates on the downlink channel (from the base station to the mobile station) and on the uplink channel (from the mobile station to the base station) and further on towards LTE/SAE (Long-Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution).

HSPDA will, for example, allow for peak data rates up to 10 Mbit/s, shorter connection and response times and a huge increase in sector throughput, while the EUL will increase uplink data rates in a later HSPDA release. LTE/SAE, in turn, will offer similar advantages.

Nonetheless, while these advantages will benefit end-users and the use of resource hungry mobile applications, the improvements are in conflict with other parameters important in such wireless communication networks, such as current consumption both in the mobile stations and the base stations, volume, and others.

One attempt of dealing with the increased power consumption is the introduction of power amplifiers adapted to have high efficiency at high output powers and power amplifiers with high efficiency at lower output powers as shown in FIG. 1.

Here, the amplifier circuit comprises one amplifier for high output power and one for lower output powers, i.e., around 15 dBm. Even though the current consumption through this arrangement is reduced with respect to only one power amplifier, there is still room for reducing the current consumption even more and particularly for saving battery power in diversity systems, be it in receiver or transmitter diversity systems, or both.

Aspects of the invention provide an alternative way of reducing the current consumption in a mobile station or an access point in a wireless communication network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the invention provides a transceiver for wireless communication networks. The transceiver comprises: at least one transceiver module for determining the signal power to be transmitted; a unit for directing one or more signals whose determined signal power is above a certain power threshold to one or more first amplifiers with high efficiency above the power threshold and one or more signals whose determined signal power is below the power threshold to one or more second amplifiers with high efficiency at signal powers below the power threshold; an isolation arrangement connected to the one or more first amplifiers for preventing signal reflections of the signals amplified by the one or more first amplifiers; and at least one first diversity antenna and at least one first main antenna for transmitting the amplified signals.

One advantage of the transceivers according to the present invention is the tangible reduction in current consumption and the flexibility of its use in virtually any diversity transceiver circuit.

Furthermore, another aspect of the invention provides a method for amplifying signals in a wireless communication network which comprises the steps of: a) receiving one or more signals, b) determining the power at which the one or more received signals are to be sent, c) comparing the power at which the one or more received signals are to be sent to a predefined power threshold, d) directing one or more signals whose power is above a certain power threshold to one or more first amplifiers with high efficiency above the power threshold power, and one or more signals below the power threshold to one or more second amplifiers with high efficiency at signal powers below the power threshold, e) amplifying the signal in the one or more first amplifiers, f) sending the amplified signal to at least one first diversity antenna or to at least one main antenna and g) transmitting the one or more signals over the radio interface via the at least one first diversity antenna or at least one first main antenna.

The method may be specially adapted to be implemented by the transceiver according to the present invention. Also, the steps of the method according to the present invention may be executed by a computer program running either on the transceiver of the present invention or on a separate storage medium.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an amplifier circuit according to known technology.

FIG. 2 illustrates a transceiver circuit according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a transceiver circuit according to a second embodiment of the present invention, where the transceiver comprises a DPDT switch.

FIG. 4 illustrates a transceiver circuit in a MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) or MISO (Multiple Input Single Output) system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates the steps of a method according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a probability versus output power distribution in a CDMA2000 network.

FIG. 7 shows a graph where the current consumption is shown as a function of output power for a transceiver according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following detailed description, reference numbers depicting identical elements in different figures will not be repeated for each figure for the purposes of easier reading.

FIG. 1 gives an illustration of an amplifier circuit 100 where it is attempted to reduce the current consumption in a mobile station or base station according to known technology.

Referring to FIG. 1, an RF input signal 110 is fed into a splitter 140 and directed to the input of a first power amplifier 150 and a second amplifier 160. The first amplifier 150 is trimmed for high efficiency at high output powers, while the second amplifier 160 is adapted for high efficiency at lower output powers, such as, for example, 15 dBm or lower.

Depending on whether it is desired to output only the high power amplified RF signal from the first amplifier 150 or the lower power amplified RF signal from the second amplifier 160, a mode splitter 110 uses a control signal to make either the first amplifier 150 or the second amplifier 160 output the amplified signal. The two control signals used for controlling the power amplifier outputs are a first mode signal 120 and a second mode signal 130 corresponding to high power RF signals and lower power RF signals. Naturally, it may also be possible to combine both the amplified high power part of the input RF signal and the lower power part RF input signal in a combiner 170 in an amplified RF output signal 180.

It should be noted that normally, the transceiver according to the present invention illustrated in FIGS. 2-5 may be implemented in any mobile device operating in a wireless communication network, such as a mobile station, a wireless network card, PDA and similar devices, as well as in a base station, access point, Node B or similar access points in a wireless communication network.

Turning now to FIG. 2, a transceiver circuit 200 according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown.

The transceiver circuit 200 comprises a diversity transceiver module 212 which among other things is used for determining the power level at which a signal arriving at a power amplifier is going to be transmitted. This power level is determined from a signal continuously sent by a base station (not shown) telling the terminal to either decrease or increase its output power. Furthermore, the diversity transceiver module 212 is connected to a first group of power amplifiers (in this case three) 220, 222, 224 trimmed for high efficiency at high output powers, such as, for example 24 dBm or above. Also, the first group of power amplifiers 220, 222, 224 for high output powers may each be connected to a first group of circulators 230, 232, 234 (illustrated by dashed lines in FIG. 2) having among other things the function of an isolator for preventing signal reflections of an RF signal from the first antenna circuit 246. Using a circulator as an isolation circuit would reduce the output power by approximately 0.4 dB. It is however perfectly possible to have a functioning first group of power amplifiers 220, 222, 224 without using the circulators 230, 232, 234.

Each circulator 230, 232, 234, is in turn connected to a first group of duplexers 240, 242, 244 which may comprise band pass filters for signals to be transmitted over the air interface and band pass filters for signals received over the same. These duplexers additionally provide high isolation between bands of interest and are therefore used for filtering the interesting part of the signal.

It should be mentioned here, that it is assumed that the signals to be amplified are Wideband Carrier Division Multiplex Multiple Access (WCDMA) or 3G signals to be sent over the air interface. However, it is also possible to feed combined GSM/EDGE and WCDMA signals as well as Long Term Evolution (LTE)-signals, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) or Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) to the first group of power amplifiers 220, 222 and 224 if the bandpass frequency filters 236, 237 and 238 are designed with a wide enough pass band.

Alternatively, the GSM/EDGE signals 249 which are not amplified by the first group of power amplifiers 220, 222, 224 may be fed directly into a diversity front-end module or, for example, a SPnT switch 246 before they are to be sent over the air interface via the diversity antenna 248. Here an SPnT switch is a Single-Pole N Throw switch, N being the number of switching positions for the switch.

Also, the amplified and filtered radio signals are fed into the diversity front-end module 246 and sent over the air interface via the diversity antenna 248.

Furthermore, radio signals received from the diversity antenna 248 are filtered by the same first group of frequency filters 236, 237, 238 as above for removing undesired parts of the frequency spectrum before they are sent to the diversity transceiver module 212 via the connections 240, 242 and 244.

The main transceiver module 252 is connected in a very similar way to the second front-end module 286. Since the output power for the radio signals amplified in a second group of amplifiers 260, 262, 264 is lower than the output power for the radio signals amplified by the first group of amplifiers 220, 222, 224, isolators in the form of circulators (indicated by dashed lines) may not be needed either. It may be mentioned that depending on the output capabilities of the power amplifiers 220, 222, 224, i.e., the headroom between their maximum output capabilities and the highest power they will operate at, the ACLR (Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio) and the EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) which describe the interference from neighboring channels to the amplified radio channels and the modulation distortion induced by interference from other channels may be reduced.

It should also be mentioned that the second group of amplifiers 260, 262, 264 are trimmed for high efficiency at lower power levels, such as, for example, 15 dBm or lower.

Additionally, the second group of amplifiers 260, 262, 264 is in turn connected to a second group of bandpass frequency filters 270, 272, 274. As described previously, these bandpass filters filter the interesting parts of the frequency spectrum for the amplified radio signals before they are sent to the main front-end module 286 and further over the radio interface via the main antenna 288.

Radio signals received on the main antenna 288 are also bandpass filtered by the second group of bandpass frequency filters before being forwarded as filtered signals 280, 282, 284 to the main transceiver module 252.

GSM/EDGE signals 290 not intended to be amplified by the second group of amplifiers 260, 262, 264 are fed via a separate input into the main front-end module and sent over the radio interface via the main antenna 288.

In case only WCDMA signals are to be amplified by the first group of amplifiers 220, 222, 224 and the second group of amplifiers 262, 264, 266, GSM/EDGE signals are fed out from the main front-end module 286 via a separate output 292.

FIG. 3 illustrates a transceiver circuit 300 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Essentially, it is the same transceiver circuit 200 from FIG. 2 with the addition of a switch 320, which, for example may be a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) switch. The function of the elements present from FIG. 2 present in FIG. 2 will not be repeated here.

A DPDT switch usually consists of two switches switching between two well-defined states as is known to the skilled person. The DPDT switch 320 may be provided as a solid state switch or as an electrical switch, as preferred.

DPDT switch 320 may, depending on the control signal 311, activate the main antenna 288 and put the diversity antenna 248 to ground 310, 312 or vice versa. In this fashion one of the transmitters can be connected to any one of the two antennas 248, 288. Usually, the main antenna 288 operates at a higher gain than the diversity antenna 248, so at the lower power levels, where the use of transmit diversity may not be necessary, the DPDT switch 320 may be used to connect the second group of amplifiers 260, 262, 264 having high efficiency at lower transmit powers to the main antenna 288.

The active antenna may be coupled to one of the transceiver circuits; either the diversity transceiver circuit 212 or the main transceiver circuit 252. However, it may also be possible to couple one of the antennas to the outputs of both transceiver circuits by using other types of switches.

Additionally, one may use other types of switches, such as a Singe-Pole Single Throw (SPST) switches, (Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) switches, Single-Pole Double Throw (SPDT) switches, Single-Pole Change Over (SPCO) switches and other types of switches suitable for switching between the one first diversity antenna 248 and the one first main antenna 288.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a transceiver circuit 400 according to a third embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. In this embodiment, we have the same transceiver as in FIG. 2 applied to a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) or a multiple input, single output (MISO) system.

In contrast to the embodiments in FIGS. 2 and 3, each front end module 246, 286 has its own receiver antennas 248, 288 and transmitter antennas 448, 488. Thus, since signals are transmitted and received via different antennas, frequency filters 236, 237, 238 and 270, 272, 274 for separation of uplink from downlink signals may no longer be needed, thus they are not illustrated in FIG. 4.

The example MIMO or MISO transceiver system 400 may of course comprise more than two sets of receiver and transmitter antennas 248, 288 and 448, 488, depending on the application.

FIG. 5 illustrates the steps of a method according to one embodiment of the present invention. At step 500, one or more signals to be transmitted are received at a transceiver circuit which may be one of the transceiver circuits 200, 300 or 400 described above or some modification of these circuits consistent with aspects of the transceiver circuits described above and consistent with the present invention.

Next, at step 510, in one of the transceiver modules 212, 252 the power level at which the one or more of the signals are going to be transmitted, is determined. Thereafter at step 520, the determined signal power level for the one or more signals to be transmitted is compared with a predefined threshold power value. This threshold power value is chosen so that the first one group of amplifiers 220, 222, 224 is adapted to have maximum efficiency above this value, while the second one group of amplifiers 260, 262, 254 is adapted for maximum efficiency below the threshold power value. The comparison step 520 is needed to determine to which group of amplifiers the one or more signals should be sent in order to be amplified.

Therefore, if the signal power value for the one or more received signals is above the predefined threshold value, it is sent to the first one group of amplifiers 220, 222, 224 at step 530.

Thereafter, at step 540 the one or more received signals are amplified by the first one group of amplifiers 220, 222, 224 and sent further at step 540 to the diversity antenna 248 where they are transmitted over the air interface at step 550.

In contrast, if the signal power for the one or more signals to be transmitted is determined to be below the predefined threshold power value, the one or more signals are forwarded to the second one group of amplifiers 260, 262, 264 at step 525. Thereafter, the one or more signals are amplified by the second group of amplifiers 260, 262, 264 at step 535 and sent to the main antenna 288 at step 545.

It will be appreciated here, that in at least one embodiment of the transceiver according to the present invention (e.g., the second embodiment), the amplified one or more signals may be sent to either the diversity antenna 248 or the main antenna 288, as preferred.

Finally, at step 550 the thus amplified one or more signals are transmitted over the air interface via the main antenna 288.

FIG. 6 illustrates a probability versus output power distribution 610 taken from suburban profile measurements for the CDMA2000 system. The diagram shows the probability in percent of a certain output power expressed in dBm. Values above 24 dBm are not shown due to the power class constraints, meaning a transceiver sending WCMDA signals is not allowed to send signals with higher than 24 dBm+1/−3 dB (power class 3 constraint). As can be seen from the diagram, the output power will be mostly concentrated between −20 dBm and 15 dBm with a slight tail between 15 dBm and 25 dBm.

These figures are known to the skilled person and have been arrived at by experiment in many wireless networks in dedicated mode and are used in cell planning.

Using these figures however, simulations on the transceiver circuit according to the present invention have been performed with varying maximum power values for which the efficiencies of second group of power amplifiers 260, 262, 264 have been optimized.

The result of these simulations is shown in the graph in FIG. 7. Referring to FIG. 7, the graph shows the current consumption in mA as a function of output power in dBm for three scenarios. The first scenario comprised the use of a single power amplifier with maximum efficiency at maximum power and is illustrated by the curve 710.

It is evident that the current consumption lies around 0.8 mA for an output power in the interval −18 dBm to 16 dBm, while it rapidly rises between for output powers beyond 16 dBm.

The second scenario comprised two power amplifier groups, where the first group comprised power amplifiers trimmed for high efficiency at output powers above 15 dBm and power amplifiers trimmed for high efficiency at output power up to 15 dBm which is illustrated by the curve 720.

It is clearly visible that the average current consumption in the interval between −18 dBm and 15 dBm lies around 0.2 mA, before rapidly rising for an output effect beyond 15 dBm in a similar way as for the first scenario. The sudden jump in current consumption in the region between 15 dBm and 17 dBm may be explained by the fact that in this region the amplification switches from the lower power Power amplifier (PA) to the high power PA.

Finally, the third situation comprised a high power PA and a lower power PA with trimmed efficiency up to 9 dBm represented by the curve 730.

The sudden increase in current consumption is similar to the second scenario but (logically) kicks in between 9 dBm and 11 dBm. Later on, at around 16 dBm output power, the increase in current consumption becomes identical to the first and second scenarios.

Using known formulas for calculating the current consumption probability for all three scenarios, it was found that the average current consumption for the second and third scenarios where lower power PA optimized for high efficiency at lower powers are used, was reduced by 16 mA compared to the case of only one power amplifier at maximum output power. However the difference in current consumption between the second and third cases was only marginal.

It may be added that the transceiver according to the present invention may be employed in any wireless communication system, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN SPST), such as IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, HiperLAN, WINNER, WiMAX and other similar wireless communication systems.

Also the power amplifiers may consist of one amplifier component which usually is a solid state component, or comprise more than one amplifier component, depending on need. Although some power levels at which the power amplifiers have been designed to be highly efficient have been mentioned earlier in the description, they are given as example values only. It should be understood that the specific power levels for which the PAs are designed to be highly efficient depend on the application field and therefore may vary.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, or components, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components, or groups thereof.

No element, act, or instruction used in the description of the present application should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended, the term “one” or similar language is used. Further, the phrase “based on,” as used herein is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.

The scope of the invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents. 

1-13. (canceled)
 14. A device comprising: a processor to: determine a signal power for one or more signals to be transmitted, direct the one or more signals, when the determined signal power is above a particular power threshold, to one or more first amplifiers with an efficiency above the particular power threshold and not to one or more second amplifiers with an efficiency below the particular power threshold, and direct the one or more signals, when the determined signal power is below the particular power threshold, to the one or more second amplifiers and not to the one or more first amplifiers.
 15. The device of claim 14, further comprising: filters to separate the amplified one or more signals to be transmitted from received signals.
 16. The device of claim 14 further comprising, an isolation arrangement, connected to the one or more first amplifiers and the one or more second amplifiers, where the isolation arrangement is to: prevent signal reflections of the one or more signals after amplification.
 17. The device of claim 14, further comprising: a switch to: select one of a plurality of antennas to transmit the one or more signals after amplification by either the one or more first amplifiers or the one or more second amplifiers.
 18. The device of claim 17, where the switch is further to connect another one of the plurality of antennas to ground.
 19. The device of claim 17, where the switch includes at least one of: a single pole single throw switch, a double pole double throw switch, a single pole double throw switch, a single pole change over switch, or another type of switch suitable to select among the plurality of antennas.
 20. The device of claim 14, where the one or more signals to be amplified by one of the one or more first amplifiers or the one or more second amplifiers include at least one of: wideband carrier division multiple access (WCDMA) signals, or combined global system for mobile communications/enhanced data rates for Global Evolution (GSWEDGE) signals.
 21. A method, comprising: receiving, by a device, one or more signals; determining, by the device, a power at which the one or more received signals are to be sent; comparing, by the device, the power at which the one or more received signals are to be sent to a particular power threshold; when the power, at which the one or more received signals are to be sent, is above to the particular power threshold, directing, by the device, the one or more received signals to one or more first amplifiers with an efficiency above the particular power threshold power, and not to one or more second amplifiers with an efficiency below the particular power threshold; and when the power, at which the one or more received signals are to be sent, is below the particular power threshold, directing, by the device, the one or more received signals to the one or more second amplifiers, and not to the one or more first amplifiers.
 22. The method of claim 21, where the one or more signals are received from other devices in the wireless communication network.
 23. The method of claim 21, further comprising: separating the received one or more signals, after amplification, from the one or more received signals prior to amplification.
 24. The method of claim 21, further comprising preventing signal reflections of the received one or more signals after amplification.
 25. The method of claim 21, further comprising: transmitting the at least one received signals after amplification by a first diversity antenna and a first main antenna, where the where the one or more signals are received, from other devices in a wireless communication network, by at least one of a second diversity antenna or a second main antenna, where the second diversity antenna and the second main antenna differ from the first diversity antenna and the first main antenna.
 26. The method of claim 25, further comprising: selecting one of the first diversity antenna or the first main antenna to transmit the one or more signals after amplification; and connecting the non-selected one of the first diversity antenna or the first main antennas to ground.
 27. The method of claim 21, where the one or more signals are one of: wideband carrier division multiple access (WCDMA) signals, or combined global system for mobile communications/enhanced data rates for Global Evolution (GSWEDGE) signals.
 28. A non-transient computer-readable medium for storing instructions executable by a processor in a device, the instructions comprising: instructions to receive one or more signals; instructions to determine a power at which the one or more received signals are to be sent; instructions to compare the power at which the one or more received signals are to be sent to a particular power threshold; instructions to direct, when the power, at which the one or more received signals are to be sent, is above the particular power threshold, the one or more received signals to one or more first amplifiers with an efficiency above the particular power threshold power, and not to one or more second amplifiers with an efficiency below the particular power threshold; and instructions to direct, when the power, at which the one or more received signals are to be sent, is below to the particular power threshold, the one or more received signals to the one or more second amplifiers, and not to the one or more first amplifiers.
 29. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 28, where the one or more signals are received from other devices in a wireless communication network.
 30. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 28, where the instructions further comprise: instructions to separate the one or more received signals, prior to amplification, from the one or more received signals after amplification.
 31. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 28, where the instructions further comprise: instructions to prevent signal reflections of the one or more received signals after amplification.
 32. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 31, where the instructions further comprise: instructions to transmit the at least one received signals, after amplification, by a first diversity antenna and a first main antenna, where the one or more signals are received, from other devices in a wireless communication network, by at least one of a second diversity antenna or a second main antenna, where the second diversity antenna and the second main antenna differ from the first diversity antenna and the first main antenna.
 33. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 32, where the instructions further comprise: instructions to select one of the first diversity antenna or the first main antenna to transmit the one or more received signals, after amplification; and instructions to connect the non-selected one of the first diversity antennas or the first main antenna to ground. 